Foss, Wentzel lead Conant by Batavia
Kelsey Foss and Drew Wentzel were the stars of the show as each scored in spectacular fashion to help lead No. 2 Conant (18-3-0) to a 4-0 victory over No. 7 Batavia as the Cougars captured their own Class 3A girls soccer regional title in Friday night in Hoffman Estates.
Conant awaits its sectional opponent — either Elk Grove or Schaumburg, who play Saturday — in Wednesday’s 6 p.m. Schaumburg sectional semifinal.
“I thought we had a little bit of a shaky start, even though we had a couple of chances to get into the back of the net,” said Conant coach Jason Franco, “but we were able to score all of our goals off dead balls. And when you do that, especially during this part of the season, things usually are going to go very well for you.”
Conant got the early lead it desired when Foss send a drive off the bar and into the 6-yard box. Courtney Raetzman’s return shot found the bar as well before the loose ball unfortunately went off a Batavia player and past keeper Roni Resek.
At four minutes, Resek’s superb reaction save from in close stopped Raetzman after teammate Sam Armando put her through brilliantly.
Initially, the Buldogs (11-7-1) coped well with the Cougars’ ability to connect, but the own-goal seemed to break their spirit, leading up to Wentzel finding Foss in the 36th minute.
“I thought we really played (them) well in that first 15 minutes or so with some nice combination work, and good work defending and marking their top players, but that firt goal seemed to take a little something out of us, and our inability to mark on those set pieces really did us in as well,” said Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco, who had four freshmen and one sophomore as starters.
Foss ran unmarked into the box to put the finishing touches on a Wentzel serve from the far side to give the Cougars a 2-goal half-time lead. And at 58 minutes, Wentzel stepped up to hit a wicked free-kick drive from 20 yards past Bulldogs second-half keeper Nicki Reiton.
“We’ve been working a lot lately on set pieces and dead ball plays, so it was good to put a few of those in,” said Wentzel. “As we get deeper into the playoffs, it could be a goal like that which is the difference.”
The Cougars conceded just a few long throws by Brittany Wahlen, whose trademark flip throws led to a pair of goals, including the game-winner in their regional opener over Lake Park earlier in the week.
“We wanted to stay away from those flip-throws, and we did a pretty good job of that, but Batavia was a good team, and they played hard, and actually had a few chances of their own, especially right at the start when they got in on us,” Franco said. “We’re very happy to win this game to move on.”
A late PK conversion by Raetzman, which drew an extended complaint from Gianfrancesco, finished the scoring.
“This has been a very good year for this team,” said Gianfrancesco, who took over the program this spring. “It is a team that plays hard, as witnessed tonight when right until the end, their work rate was outstanding. And it is a team with a bunch of young players who got a lot of experience all throughout the season, plus two games in the postseason. I feel the future is bright as we go forward.”